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Department of Journalism & Technical Communication

New Courses 2015

COM 1010 - Critical Thinking through 21st Century Media

This course satisfies 3 credits of the Arts & Humanities General Studies requirement. Through the lens of 21st century media, this course teaches students to be critical media producers and consumers through analytical thinking and inquiry learning skills. It reviews the similarities and differences between traditional and 21st century media, with attention focused on bias, perspective, author’s intent, audience, social and ethical responsibilities and the impact on a media communication process. Twenty-first century media will be examined through both primary sources and current media to provide historical context for understanding media communication.

COM 3540 - Mobile & Social Media Communication

This course explores the principles of using mobile and social media to accomplish a communication goal. Social media is investigated for its collaborative and community-building properties. Mobile media is examined through the lens of technology-enhanced communication.

JRN 3130 - Sports Writing

The Fall 2015 semester is the first time we will be offering a new course designed for journalists and anyone interested in the Sport Media Minor that his shared between JTC and the Department of Human Performance and Sports. Terry Frei, veteran sports journalist and long-time writer for The Denver Post, will teach the course. Frei's experience and current coverage will provide students additional insight into the challenges of begin a sports writer. The course will provide students with knowledge of sports coverage for newspapers, magazines and other mass media publications including the Internet via a variety of software platforms. Students will cover a sport during a season, writing game reports and features, as part of the course.

JRN 390T - Covering the Environment

Recognizing the critical role that human interaction with the environment plays in gathering news and in producing public relations work, the department is offering a new omnibus course for the Fall 2015 semester. Students in this course analyze corporate and public environmental policy in the West and how it is covered by news media. Students employ ethical paradigms in comparing and contrasting environmental issues and their coverage. Ultimately students compose journalism projects that detail the impact of environmental policy on end users.

Social Documentary Incubator

Extended Major in Social Documentary and Modern Languages

Program Description

The departments of Modern Languages and Journalism and Technical Communication are pleased to offer an incubator program for an extended major in Social Documentary and Modern Languages (each student will select a language to be named in their title).

The field of social documentary is a rapidly expanding one. At present, Colorado is home to more than 40 Film Festivals. In North America, there are more than 190 international film festivals, the vast majority of which include documentary as a category. In the commercial U.S. television industry, 17 television/cable networks are classified as documentary channels including the History Channel, National Geo and the Smithsonian Channel. This list does not include HBO, Showtime, ESPN or PBS, all of which feature documentary films, including programs in Spanish.

The figures above do not include documentary film festivals that take place in countries outside of North America. Television networks, such as Discovery, have channels in many other countries throughout the world that feature foreign language documentaries. Additionally, many countries have both state-sponsored and private television networks that offer documentary programming in languages other than English. These markets provide more potential for students and graduates to produce and sell social documentaries that target different cultures and languages.